Supernatural: Sin City

A surprisingly talk-heavy episode of Supernatural, Sin City gave us a heavy info-dump on the demons' side of war, when Dean becomes trapped in a basement with Casey (Sasha Barrese) a particularly chatty - and, of course, hot looking - demon.

Not only do we learn the old Yellow Eyed Demon's real name, but also about demonic religion (they follow Lucifer The Lightbringer in the same way people worship God) and Sam's planned role in the war.

Sam and Dean are drawn to the supposedly quiet factory town of Elizabethville, Ohio, by a couple of reports of unexplained violence; what they find instead is a party town of hookers, gambling and booze.

At the centre of everything seems to be the mayor, Trotter (Don S Davies), but Sam soon discovers he's a red herring, while Dean is off investigating the disappearance of fellow hunter Richie (Martin Papazian), who was last seen with sultry barmaid Casey.

In the meantime Bobby Singer is repairing the "magic Colt", since it got ruined at the end of last season, and just as it seems he's not making any headway, rebellious demon Ruby turns up and lends a hand.

While all this advancing the main through story is all well and good, I do miss the stories from the first couple of seasons where the Winchester boys were just tracking down and slaying monsters from folklore.

There was nothing particular wrong with Sin City, it just felt like a bit of a filler episode and the information that was imparted to Dean could easily have been slipped in, along the way, in other stories.

Much like The Magnificent Seven, there's a lot of talk about rising stakes, but the challenges the brothers are facing seem to be getting easier rather than harder.